Seat belt retractor
AssigneeAisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorNaoaki Hoshihara
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A seat belt retractor for reducing the retracting force of a webbing on an occupant, including a casing and a spool rotatably mounted in the casing. A length of the webbing being wound on the spool. A spiral spring connected to the spool biases and rotates the spool in the direction of the winding of the webbing on the spool. A shaft rotatably mounted in the casing engages the spool to provide unitary rotation therebetween. An elastic member connected to the shaft and an inner cylinder engageable with the elastic member reduce the biasing force of the spiral spring when the spool is rotated to retract the webbing.
Claims15
A seat belt retractor, comprising:
- a casing;
- a spool rotatably mounted in the casing, including a length of webbing wound thereon and a gear portion;
- spring means connected to the spool for providing a biasing force and rotating the spool in the direction of the winding to retract the webbing;
- an inner cylinder disposed in the casing, the inner cylinder including an inner surface;
- a shaft rotatably mounted in the inner cylinder, including pinions means for engaging the gear portion of the spool to provide unitary rotation of the shaft and spool;
- and
- an elastic member connected to the shaft and engageable with the inner surface of reducing the biasing force of the spring means at times when the spool is rotated in the direction of the winding of the webbing.
A seat belt retractor comprising:
- a casing;
- a spool rotatably mounted in the casing;
- a length of webbing wound on the spool;
- spring means connected to the spool for biasing and rotating the spool in the direction of the winding of the webbing on the spool to retract the webbing;
- an inner cylinder disposed in the casing, the inner cylinder including an inner surface;
- a shaft rotatably mounted in the inner cylinder and engageable with the spool for providing unitary rotation therebetween;
- an elastic member connected to the shaft and engageable with the inner surface for reducing the biasing force of the spring means at times when the spool is rotated in the direction of the winding of the webbing;
- and
- clutch means in communication with the spool and shaft for establishing engagement and disengagement therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.